Baker v. United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds

• Citation: 929 F.2d 1140
• Decision Date: 09 April 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-5626,90-5626
• Parties: William L. BAKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA HEALTH AND RETIREMENT FUNDS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1140

929 F.2d 1140

William L. BAKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA HEALTH AND RETIREMENT FUNDS,

Defendant-Appellee.

No. 90-5626.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 4, 1991.

Decided April 9, 1991.

W. Jeffrey Scott, Grayson, Ky., for plaintiff-appellant.

Andree M. St. Martin, David W. Allen, Charlotte von Salis, United Mine Workers of America Health & Retirement Funds, Washington, D.C., Bruce A. Levy, Pikeville, Ky., for defendant-appellee.

Before JONES and NELSON, Circuit Judges, and JOINER, Senior District Judge. ^*

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff-appellant William L. Baker appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant-appellee, the Trustees ("Trustees") of the United Mine Workers of America ("UMWA") Health and Retirement Funds ("1950 Pension Trust"), in this action for pension benefits. The district court sustained the Trustees' determination that Baker was not eligible for pension benefits from the 1950 Pension Trust. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I.

Baker is a former coal miner who claims to have been employed in the bituminous coal industry from 1929 to 1958. Defendants are the Trustees of the UMWA 1950 Pension Trust, one of five collectively-bargained employee benefit trust funds which together are referred to as the UMWA Health and Retirement Funds.

Eligibility for benefits from the 1950 Pension Trust is governed by the UMWA 1950 Pension Plan ("the Plan"). J. App. at 57-62 (reproduced in relevant part). To be eligible for pension benefits under the Plan, an applicant must establish, among other things, that he has completed at least twenty years of service as a classified employee in the coal industry, including five years of service with coal operators signatory to a National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement, a collective bargaining agreement between an association of coal employers and the UMWA. Id. at 57, 61. For years prior to 1937, an applicant receives service credit for each calendar year in which he worked as a classified employee for at least six months. Id. at 59. After 1937, an applicant receives credit for each year of service in which he worked at least 1000 hours as a classified employee. Where records of hours worked are not available, credit is given based upon receipt of specified levels of wages in each year. Id. at 58. Further, even if an applicant establishes the required years of service, he may not receive credit for work performed while he was "directly connected with the ownership, operation or management of a mine." Id. at 60.

Baker filed an application for pension benefits with the 1950 Pension Trust on October 4, 1986. On his application, he claimed to have worked in the coal industry for almost thirty years for a number of different coal companies. On February 12, 1987, Baker was notified by the Trustees that his application had been denied because he had not established the requisite twenty years of classified service in the coal industry. The Trustees calculated that Baker had earned sixteen and one-half years of classified service for his employment with Lando Mines from 1941 until 1958. However, the Trustees did not allow any credit for alleged coal mining work prior to 1941.

In March 1987, Baker filed a request for a hearing and a hearing was held on May 11, 1987. On July 2, 1987, Baker was notified that his application for benefits had been denied on appeal. Baker then initiated this action in the Eastern District of Kentucky in October, 1987. On May 31, 1988, Baker and the Trustees filed cross-motions for summary judgment. These motions were referred to a Magistrate for a report and recommendation. The magistrate issued his report on November 9, 1988, recommending remand of Baker's file to the Trustees for reconsideration of several pieces of evidence which the Trustees had failed to properly consider. Id. at 98-99. Specifically, the magistrate recommended reconsideration of Baker's 1942 application for a coal miner's certificate, the testimony of a co-worker, Ottis Roark, state mining records for 1933-34 and statements from co-workers Charles and Roy Blevins. Id. In addition, the magistrate recommended that the Trustees consider such additional evidence as Baker could produce as to hours worked or wages received as well as affidavits by Calvin Littleton and Baker's wife, Mary, which were not part of the original record of review. Id. at 97 and 99. The district court adopted the magistrate's recommendation and the case was remanded to the Trustees.

On remand, Baker attempted to show that he was employed in the coal industry from 1929 until 1940 at three separate coal companies. Perhaps the clearest way to examine the facts before the Trustees is to look at the facts Baker proffered to support each period of employment.

Biggs Coal Company, 1929-34

Baker claimed creditable work time in the coal industry for work performed at Biggs Coal Company ("Biggs Coal") from 1929 to 1934. To get pension credit for work performed during this period, Baker must demonstrate that he worked as a classified employee for an employer in the coal industry for at least six months of each year claimed. Id. at 59. Further, Baker cannot receive credit for any time during which he was connected to the ownership, operation or management of a mine. Id. at 60.

On his pension application, Baker claimed that he worked for Biggs from 1929 to 1936. Later he revised this assertion to the period from 1929 to 1934. To support his claim that he was an employee at Biggs, Baker produced several pieces of evidence including several co-worker statements, an affidavit from his wife, a 1942 application for a West Virginia coal mining certificate which indicated that he had fifteen years of prior mining experience (implying that he had begun mining in 1927), and Kentucky state mining records. The Trustees requested additional information which might help to establish the time worked during each year, but Baker was unable to produce any additional evidence because his federal income tax records had been destroyed by the IRS, no Social Security records existed for Baker prior to 1941 and he had no pay stubs because he alleged he was paid in cash.

During a meeting between the Trustees and Baker, held on September 8, 1989, Baker admitted that from the time President Hoover was elected in 1928 until 1933, he had been living with his sister in Belle Trace during which time he "piddled, ginned around, and cut firewood." Id. at 119. When his attorney questioned him about the apparent inconsistency between his alleged work at Biggs and his statement about his life at his sister's, he refused to recant his statement. Id. Based upon this admission, the Trustees determined that despite his wife's affidavit stating that he had worked at Biggs from 1931 until 1935, Baker did not work at Biggs between 1929 and 1933, during the time he said he lived at his sister's. This determination seemed to be substantiated by the fact that there was no record of a Biggs Coal Company in the Kentucky state mining records until 1933.

For the remaining period of 1933-34, the statements of Baker's co-workers, Leslie Blair and Ottis Roark, suggested that Baker had worked at Biggs for some period, but neither could conclusively state when or for how long. See, id. at 22 and 120. Further, in a telephone interview between Blair and the Trustees, Blair suggested that Baker and the other miners at Biggs worked under contract to the Biggs operation, had to buy their own supplies, and were paid at a rate of $1.25 per ton of coal. Id. at 120. Roark also indicated that the mining operation at Biggs' farm consisted of about eight men, all of whom were paid by the ton. Id. at 22. Taking this evidence into account, the Trustees found that Baker had worked at Biggs during 1933-34 but that he was either a self-employed contractor or a gang worker working in a non-signatory mine and therefore could not claim credit for this period under the Plan. Id. at 113.

Blevins Coal Company, 1935-39

Baker originally claimed to have worked at Blevins Coal Company ("Blevins Coal") from 1937 to 1940 but during his May 11, 1987 hearing, he claimed to have worked at Blevins Coal from 1935 to 1939. Id. at 19. Baker testified that at the Blevins mine he "contracted (sic) the mine ... and was paid by the ton." Id. Baker also submitted co-worker statements from Charles Blevins, Roy Blevins, Herbert Wilson and Jack Baker, and on remand added affidavits from Roy Blevins and Mary Baker.

The Trustees conducted follow-up telephone interviews with Charles and Roy Blevins. Charles Blevins indicated that miners working on the Blevins property were not supervised and were not disciplined. Each miner was "his own boss" and was paid by the number of tons produced. Id. at 123. Roy Blevins stated that Baker was "hired to work as long as he wanted to" and was paid by the ton. In addition, while Baker had to supply his own powder, "[Blevins] provided timber, nails and track timber." Id. at 121.

Herbert Wilson, while declaring he worked with Baker on the Blevin's property from 1935 to 1940, stated that there was not any "company" and that the Blevins brothers only trucked the coal away. Id. at 48. Baker's cousin, Jack Baker, also stated that the Blevins operations consisted of several mines worked by one or two men who were paid by the ton for the coal they dug. Id. at 23. Charles Blevins asserted that Baker had dug coal on the Blevins property for approximately five years, but could not recall when. Id. at 123. Jack Baker originally stated on his co-worker statement that he worked with Baker at Blevins from 1937 until 1940, id. at 42, but later testified that he worked with Baker from 1935 until 1940. Id. at 23. Mary Baker stated that she remembered that Baker was working at Blevins coal in 1938 when their son was born. Id. at 137. Kentucky state mining records show no listing...